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Purpose Driven Mom Podcast

Episode 06

Creating a Reading Culture In Your Home

In today’s episode we’ll chat about how you can create a culture of reading in your home. It’s so important that your kids grow up in a print-rich environment, see you reading, and have great routines that help them become great readers! I’ll break down for you how to start growing that space for them to explore books, how to find time to read as a busy mom, and how you can start helping develop your kids early literacy skills.

Episode Show Notes

6:00 Why your kids need to see your reading

8:00 Why reading is important in the home

18:00 Finding Chunks of Time To Read

25:00 Creating Habit Triggers for Reading

28:00 Using audiobooks and ebooks to read more

29:00 Creating Reading Habits with Your Kids

30:00 How to Do Read Aloud Time in Your Home

37:00 Giving Kids Book Choice

Subscribe & Review in the Podcast

Are you subscribed to my podcast? If you’re not, make sure you head over and do it now so that you don’t miss an episode!

While you’re there, I’d love an appreciate if you’d leave a rating and review! These allow other purpose driven moms to find the show and help grow our community! Just click here to review, select ‘Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” and let me know your favorite part of the podcast! I’d love to feature you as our ‘Review of the Week’.

How to Have a Productive Weekend so You Can Have a Productive Week

It’s important to have a productive weekend so you can have a productive week. This allows you to get more set, set yourself up for success and feel like stressed. Systems and routines allow you to live less stressed life and give you freedom to get done what matters.

I intentionally take one day off a week. I started this practice 2 months ago and am so thankful that I did. Prior to this, I was just go, go, go and didn’t rest, felt myself pulled by my to-do list, and was starting to burn out again. I knew the feelings of burn out, I had been there before. 5 years ago, I left teaching to become a full time entrepreneur and work at home mom because I felt the same feelings start to creep in. Now that I’m running my own business and family, I decided I needed some preventative measures to make sure that I was still taking care of me.

Hence… my Saturday’s off. I decided to take Saturday ‘off’ so that I could really just do what matters. The only work that I do on Saturday is what I just feel like doing, no pressure or to do list. On Saturdays if I don’t want to do laundry, house cleaning, or other ‘mom duties’, I don’t. I don’t really make too many plans unless it’s something we really want to do. Oh… and I take a nap.

I really love my Saturday nap.

But in order to make my Saturday rest day really work for me, I needed to make sure that I had a system for being very productive the rest of the week so I could relax, guilt free. And once I decided that I was going to schedule out a day of rest, it became so freeing. The week started to go more smoothly because I knew that I had a day to chill coming up, I didn’t feel guilty anymore about letting myself decompress, and I just started to laugh and enjoy our family time more. I learned to use my weekend to set my entire week up for productivity and keep it moving.

I chose to have my rest day on Saturday rather than Sunday for a few reasons.

On Sundays since we go to church, I still have us on a schedule to make sure we get out of the house on time. My husband delivers the newspaper as a side job right now so, he works Sunday mornings and I want to make sure I can give him rest time when get gets back at 6am before we go to church. Sundays are also my day to set my week up for success.

I may do some grocery shopping (though I often like to do that on Saturdays. I actually really like grocery shopping because I love to coupon and it’s a hobby for me and on Saturdays I get to go without kids!), I’ll meal prep so that I can save time during the week, and I’ll work on organizing my week, my planner, and other work tasks that I need to have a super successful and productive week.

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How to Have a Productive Weekend

There are a few things that I make sure to do over the weekend that help me have a productive week. I tend to spread them out over the weekend but you can create a schedule that fits best for you. You may have a busy Saturday and want to use Sunday as your prep day or you may spread it out – it’s up to you!

Tips for a Meal Prep System

The #1 thing that I suggest you start your Sunday with is meal planning and preparation. I actually have a system where I make the meal plan on Friday, shop on Saturday and cook on Sunday so that I don’t do it all on one day. This saves me time and decreases the overwhelm that I can face when it comes to getting it all done.

However you decide to do it, make sure you plan out your meals for the week. We keep it pretty basic and have a rotation of 2-3 breakfast, lunch and dinner options each week. My husband doesn’t mind eating the same thing each day and it’s easy to be predictable with the kids.

I’ll spend some time doing some basic preparation like cutting up fruits and veggies, making salads, cooking up rice, steaming veggies, browning some ground turkey for quick lunches, and boiling some eggs.

I then make sure that I have listed out what’s for dinner each week so that I can check the fridge and see what I still need to get at the store. I try my best to make our plan from what we already have to save money and not have to go to the store as much.

Honestly though, I cannot stand cooking dinner. I struggle so much with thinking of what to make and it was becoming super stressful. This month I’ve started using the Theme Night System from my friend Elisa at Meal Planning Blueprints. This allows me to sit down one time and create a monthly meal plan. I thought this was going to take way too long and be a waste of time but it’s proven to be a game changer! You can check out theme nights here!

I suggest even packing out as many salads for lunches in tupperware as possible (even if you stay home) because then you can grab and go instead of preparing things. This helps a ton if we decide last minute to go to the park, or meet up with friends because the food is ready to go. It also prevents me from running out of what we need or knowing what i have to stop for. These are the ones we used in the picture below!

Weekend Cleaning Routine

Even though, I have a cleaning routine where I do a little cleaning each day so that it doesn’t pile up that doesn’t mean I don’t do anything on the weekends. Often, after my Saturdays off, my house needs a little more TLC since I probably didn’t do as many dishes or pick up as much. What I have now just come to accept as a mom is that my house will probably always be covered in stuff, things will be out of place, and everything will just be sticky.

But just because my kids will always make a mess, doesn’t mean that I won’t try to make it just a little more clean and tidy. I also find that when the clutter builds up, my anxiety peaks and for me ‘outer order leads to inner calm’ so taking time on Sundays to clean up really helps.

My suggested Sunday system includes laundry (I do 1-2 loads each day so that it’s easy to put away so my Sunday laundry is normally the same), sweep and mopping the floors, vacuuming the playroom, and doing a Zone clean up.

We do a Zone Clean Up as a family after church on Sundays where everyone is in charge of a room or area (My 11 year old or husband normally does a zone with my toddler). I put on a 15 minute timer and everyone is in charge of putting away things that don’t belong in their zone. This really helps all of the out of place items to find their way back home and means that I”m not the only one picking up the books that have been on the floor for 2 days and everyone walks around (you know what I’m saying!). If you’ve never done a 15 minute pick up, read about how it can change your home here!

Before I go to bed on Sunday, I make sure that I’ve done my typical evening routine and an additional 15 minute clean up. There is nothing more exciting for me (I know this is going to sound really nerdy) than waking up on a Monday morning where there are no dishes in the sink, my kitchen table is cleaned up, and the clutter is gone. It’s really my favorite way to start the week and having a productive weekend is the first step in having a productive week!

Organize Your Weekly Calendar and To Do List

The last thing that I do to set my week up for success is make sure i have a plan in place. Often, people ask me how I can be so productive and get so much done and, while I have some hacks that help, one of the things that helps is that I always take the time to plan.

I took a training with the Franklin/Covey system once that really changed the way that I planned. I learned all about the power of weekly and nightly planning and have since been implementing it for years. It’s what I do in my life, what I teach the moms that I coach and what I teach in my e-book and course; Design Your Day; Time Management for the Busy Woman

On Sundays, I take out my planner (I use a mix of a paper planner from Erin Condren , google calendar, and Trello) and look at my week ahead.

I start with putting in all the dates of things that I cannot change like doctor appointments or meetings. We use a family calendar in the kitchen so these things always get written on their first and then transferred to my digital system.

After those dates are in, I then plan out what tasks I want to accomplish that week. I create a list of personal items, business items, and projects (around the house and for work) that I want to complete. I break them down into 20 minute tasks so that I know they are manageable and easily can be accomplished in a day, rather than over planning myself and getting frustrated when it doesn’t get done.

I then go into my planner and actually assign 3-5 tasks for each day. I split them up so that I Pick 1 personal task (call grandma, put pictures in frames etc….), 3 work tasks (write blog post, create images, email clients….) and 1 project task (brainstorm ideas for birthday party, work on mother’s day scrapbook etc….).

Assigning those things to a day BEFORE the week starts allows me to know what is going to happen and have a plan. This way, when it’s nap time and I get to work, or I have free time after dinner and want to work on a project, I’m not wasting time thinking about what to do, I can just take action.

Trust me when I say that if you set up your week for success you WILL be able to get more done, feel more accomplished and actually take a day off to rest and not feel the mom guilt! You can have a productive weekend for a more productive week!

I challenge you to start using this system (or one that works for you) to take more control in your life!

Sample Morning Routine for Sleep Deprived Moms

When you’re a sleep deprived mom, it can be hard to make any decisions, let alone what to do for a morning routine. You may feel lost in trying to keep up with your day to day demands, you are most likely in a mom brain fog as you navigate your mornings and you really just have one goal… keep the tiny humans alive. But it doesn’t mean that routines don’t matter! Routines for moms are important!

I’ve been there and can relate! My daughter didn’t sleep through the night until she was about 15 months old. I got so much luckier with my son who started around 5 months old. But having them both on different sleep patterns made me realize how much sleep impacts our well beings and our homes day to day.

Why Sleep is Important for Moms and Babies

Obviously it’s key for us to get as much sleep as possible but we know that doesn’t always happen. Yes, my kids still sleep through the night but their toddler sleep issues still suck my rest! My 3.5 year old is in a “nightmare stage” where she wants to sleep in our bed almost every night and my 1.5 year old has his toddler molars come in which results in screaming almost every night.

On the nights that someone doesn’t sleep ‘normally’ (which in our home is 8pm bedtime and 6am wake up) I feel a huge difference. I snap more at the kids, I start my day feeling behind (because if they didn’t sleep through the night, I most likely hit my 4:30 am snooze alarm and slept in with them) and I’m super short tempered.

Sleep is key for our mental wellbeing and health as a mom. After my son, I struggled with Postpartum Anxiety and Depression and it was at a time when his sleep was the most inconsistent. From when he was 2 months – 4 months old, I found myself struggling. I wasn’t getting my basic needs met with sleep and it was taking a HUGE toll on my mental health.

When my kids’ sleep is interrupted they are super cranky the next day, hungrier than normal (one of our body’s coping mechanisms for being tired) and just not as pleasant to be around.

But we can’t predict our kids’ sleep patterns and, while we’d love for them to sleep like angels, we know that they don’t. So whether you’re a newborn mom who feels like a zombie and sleeping in 2 hours chunks if you can get them, a mom working out of the home and barely getting in sleep as you cram all of your home tasks into the night hours, or a mom who just isn’t getting the sleep you need, I want to give you some tips on creating a morning routine perfect for the sleep deprived mom. (If you need help with your baby sleep, go and grab the book Precious Little Sleep NOW! It’s a lifesaver!)

Need help getting you baby to sleep through the night? Check out the tips on my friend Jilly’s site by clicking the banner below!

Morning Routine Ideas for Sleep Deprived Moms

Even us tired moms need to have some sort of routine to keep our house going. And while I know you’re probably rolling your eyes at me even talking about a routine when you could fall asleep standing up in the shower, trust me when I say small tasks and habits you can add into your morning will make the rest of the day feel less overwhelming.

When I talk about creating a morning routine, note that I don’t mean a minute by minute schedule that you must always keep to. What I’m talking about are small habits you add into your morning that are predictable, help you get some time to take a breath when you need it, and create space and margin when you’re feeling exhausted.

Unfortunate as moms, we can’t always just let things go to the side because we’re tired. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been known to crawl in bed with my toddler during nap to get a snooze or pass out on my infant’s floor after they finally go to bed – but no matter how tired we are, some things just have to get done. Our kids need to eat, clothes need to be cleaned, and we need to take some time for self care.

Any of the suggestions I give in this post are to be adapted for you and your family. Include and involve all the other people living in your home into the morning routine and remember, mom doesn’t have to do all the chores! It’s so key to have good communication with your spouse and family and let them know when you’re struggling and where they can help. They aren’t mind readers so by saying the simple phrase “I’m feeling a little overwhelmed with things right now, do you think you could XYZ, I’d really appreciate” will go a long way.

When I was struggling with PPA/PPD I had so many moments where I refused to ask for help. I thought it made me look weak, I thought people would judge me or think I wasn’t a good mom, or it would just irritate my husband being ‘so needy’. Note that those are valid thoughts but not real. If you’re struggling, please go seek help and ask for what you need!

If your child is an infant, your morning may look much different than a mom of a toddler or preschool age child. They are less independent but also less mobile. I found the toughest age when I was exhausted was 14 months – 19 months (where I am now). This is where my son is in EVERYTHING but also can’t do much on his own. In the infant stage, babies are fascinated in swings, most love being in a baby carrier and honestly, just don’t do much!

So what could your morning look like?

If you roll out of bed with baby, take a few minutes for you. I suggest keeping a swing or bouncer (this is the swing we love!) in your bathroom so you can have some hands free time to brush your teeth and get dressed. Don’t underestimate the power of putting on clothes that aren’t pajamas!

While you’re doing this, turn on worship music, an audio book, podcast or something to get your mindset right. This could be some 90s dance music or using the YouVersion app to read the bible to you – find what gets you in a great mood and sets your soul up for success!

I listen to a TON of personal growth throughout my day and used to think it was so hard to find time to do it. Then I realized how easy it is to just hit pause, turn the TV off for background noise or listen in small chunks. Don’t feel like because you can’t sit and binge an audiobook for 3 hours those 5 minutes while you brush your teeth and wake up don’t matter – because they do! If you’ve never listened to an audiobook, give it a try! You can get a free 30 day trial + 2 free books with this link to Audible!

If you have a toddler, I really suggest aiming to get up even just 15 minutes before them. You can start tracking their sleep patterns and see what time they wake up on which days to have some sort of idea. For example, I know that my kids are typically up between 5:30-6 (I KNOW!!!) so even when I don’t get a great night sleep, I set my alarm for 5:15 to have at least that time alone. If you can’t get the alone time, still take that getting ready time for you and let them hang with you. I keep a basket of books in our bathroom for my kids to look at or play with while I get myself going.

Morning Basket for Kids

After I’ve taken even 5 minutes for me, it’s time to go down for breakfast. As much as you can, I suggest preparing breakfast ahead of time or at least having a plan. You can check out this chart I made with healthy toddler breakfast ideas and print it out so that breakfast can be a no brainer! The less you have to think and make decisions in the morning and when you’re tired, the better!

Having 2-3 breakfast options to rotate through makes it easy to get breakfast going and limit power struggles over what to eat. My kids get a protein and a carb for breakfast and I let them choose which ones they want. I’ll ask if they want sausage or yogurt first and then fruit or a waffle? This allows me to easily make things I know I already have and that are balanced for them.

While you’re getting breakfast going, this is a great time for morning basket or independent activities. If you have an infant, you can make sure you have a swing or pack and play in the kitchen (we seriously had one in every room — thank you hand me downs and consignment sales!) put on some worship music or Baby Einstein and get your breakfast going too. Hopefully you remember to put the coffee pot on the night before so you can get that brewing. (seriously… buy a coffee pot like this one. It has a timer and is amazing!)

This is a great time to get your baby his or her bottle or sit and nurse. While your baby is eating, you can check in with emails, read an ebook, or text and catch up with friends! I try to limit my mindless social media scrolling and if I didn’t assign my nursing sessions to a tasks, I would have probably just online shopped and compared myself to other moms on Facebook and Instagram. If you want to check out a morning routine specific for breastfeeding moms, click here!

If you have toddlers or preschool age children, you can put together a morning basket for them. We have a table in our kitchen and before I go to bed, I leave out an independent activity for them. My kids gravitate to this table and it keeps them busy while I wake up and get our morning going and cook any breakfast needed.

Don’t let morning basket be ‘another thing’ that you can’t keep up with though! As a sleep deprived mom, my biggest advice is to keep it simple! Morning basket is a tool you can use to help your mornings, not something else to keep up with!

Really any open ended toy item that they can have fun with on their own will work! This isn’t the time to do a new homeschool activity or teach them to read. This isn’t complicated Pinterest craft time or super messy play. This is a great time for them to have an activity they can use their imaginations with so that you can get tasks done.

Since implementing this the past few months, I’ve seen a drastic change in our mornings. I’m less stressed because they aren’t under my feet just asking for breakfast. They are becoming more patient with our morning pace (aka mom before coffee). They play together SO much better. It takes them more time in the morning to ask for the TV (which is a HUGE win in my book! I’m not anti-TV but I try to limit their screen time)

Are you a pumping mom or need tips? Click the picture to check out this course!

Household chores, cleaning, and organization as a tired mom

After we’ve all ate, it’s a great time for morning chores. My kids know that our morning tasks have to get done before TV goes on so they are more willing to help out. The thing is though, at this toddler stage, I want to teach them and train them up but it often is MUCH easier for me to just do it on my own.

They each get a simple set of chores to do so that they have responsibility and, while they are doing those, I go upstairs and grab the laundry for the day and unload the dishwasher. Those are the only two home tasks I do in my morning routine. I find that a load a day makes putting laundry away less overwhelming and emptying my dishwasher first thing allows me to just fill it after each meal instead of letting it all pile in the sink until dinner.

While my kids ‘sweep’ I get to do my chores and they are a part of the morning clean up! Try to keep those podcasts going while you do the routine so you can get you mind right! Putting on dance music can help wake you all up and just bring so much joy into the house!

By this time of the morning (it’s probably only 9am but feels like 5pm) I hope that you are patting yourself on the back with some of what you’ve accomplished. Remember mama, when you’re exhausted or having a tough day, you deserve grace since you’re doing your best! Don’t forget how powerful the small tasks can be and applaud yourself for taking a step!

Sample Morning Routine for a Breastfeeding Mom

When you’re a breastfeeding mom it can be hard to have a morning routine. You’re most likely very sleep deprived depending on how old your kid is, you have a lot of tasks on your already busy plate and the last thing you might be thinking about is having a routine that works for your mom life.

But trust me when I say, having some sort of routine can be a lifesaver when breastfeeding!

I remember what it’s like when you’re breastfeeding your newborn, you use the timers on your phone, track which side the nursing session finished on, and want to make sure that your baby is eating enough. And while so much of your time is focused on growing that little baby, at some point, you can start to get back to a routine that helps your self care as well.

When I talk about routine for new moms or breastfeeding moms, I’m not talking about an hourly schedule. There is so much that is unpredictable when you have a baby and trying to keep to a structured schedule is setting both you and baby up for failure.

This is the time when you are allowed massive amounts of grace. If you’re like me, the transition from being super Type A to having to be more ‘go with the flow’ is tough. I wanted to be in control of everything. If I was supposed to track nursing sessions down to the second I would. I was going to make sure I had control as much as possible. I quickly learned that it’s impossible when you’re a new mom.

But what’s not impossible is having a flow and routine to your day. Having this semi-structure, allows you and the kids to know what to expect and start to get back to a ‘new normal’.

Below, I am going to list some ideas for a sample morning routine that could work for a breastfeeding mom. In this example, let’s imagine the baby is past the newborn stage and not cluster feeding. Mom and baby aren’t sleeping through the night and feedings are happening every 3-4 hours.

Again, this is a sample. There are going to be days when you want to just curl back into bed — that’s okay. There are going to be days when you feel like crying — that’s okay. And there are going to be days where you are on top of the world — that’s okay.

Use this as a guideline to help you start to get your feet under you as a new mom, start to get back to whatever ‘normal’ is going to look like and allow you to focus on breastfeeding your baby and taking care of you!

What to do if your baby doesn’t sleep through the night?

For many breastfeeding babies, nighttime feedings are a norm. They like the comfort, depending on their age they might still require the nutrients for their little stomachs, and their circadian rhythm is still backwards where they think day is night and night is day.

That means for mom, you probably aren’t sleeping through the night either. That can make thinking in the morning hard, it makes decisions tough, and it makes you feel like a zombie. By planning out a small morning routine in advance, you’ll find that you will start to go on autopilot with your daily tasks. This allows you to slowly get back habits you need to run your home and take care of you.

I suggest starting with just 1-3 tasks for a few weeks while you are still trying to figure out how to live life with little sleep. Don’t create a massive to do list each morning – your main goal is to keep the tiny human alive.

By choosing a few tasks to complete, your sleep deprived mind can figure out what is most important and what needs to get done. If your baby isn’t sleeping through the night, I recommend a snooze feed to start your morning.

A snooze button feed is essentially one that happens around 4-6am and helps them go back down for hopefully another hour. It’s up to you whether you pull your baby into bed with you or nurse them in a chair. I tried my best to not have my baby in bed with us but I found with my second, I was more willing to do so. Safe sleep practice are key when co sleeping at all (even if just for an hour) so please research them first!

Starting your morning with a snooze feed lets your baby get a little more rest and you to either sleep with them or slowly begin your day with quiet time. Many of the times my kids would go back to bed after a laying down nursing session, I would try to close my eyes with them but sometimes, I just couldn’t sleep!

Instead of just mindlessly scrolling social media, staring at the ceiling or online shopping, I did my best to use that time to start my day for me!

Need help getting you baby to sleep through the night? Check out the tips on my friend Jilly’s site by clicking the banner below!

Reading and Prayer Times for Moms

I truly don’t know what moms did while breastfeeding without smartphones! Our phones as such a great tool while we’re nursing or trapped in a chair with a sleeping baby!

While there is nothing wrong with spending time on Facebook or checking emails, I suggest you add some reading and prayer time in your morning routine. When you’re breastfeeding, you can use reading apps to start your day right.

My favorite apps include Kindle Unlimited (get a free trial here!), Scribd, or Hoopla. Many of these give free trials or are free (Hoopla attaches to your library card!). If your baby has fallen asleep, reading a book is great time for mom!

As much as I love fiction (and I’m a huge reader!) I try to use times when I’m trapped under my kids as self development times. This is when I read books that fuel my soul and mind! This allows me to be a little less crabby, feel more intentional when it is time to wake up and less annoyed at my little sleep.

You can also use this time to do a prayer or devotional. All of these apps I mentioned have great devotional downloads or you can use the YouVersion or First Five app to get free bible plans! I found the time when I was breastfeeding my kids to be a great time for my bible reading and prayer because it was quiet, I could be super reflective as I stared at their little faces, and really got closer with God.

Breastfeeding Schedule for Infants

Once your baby wakes up, it’s time to start the day!

Don’t feel the need to jump out of bed, enjoy a slow start with your little one! So often we just rush the day but it’s okay to take some time for you and them to charge up!

If you were already awake and did some reading, I bet that you’re in a good place to jump out of bed. If you slept with them, allow yourself a minute to stretch and gear up for the day.

Your baby should be okay now for at least 2 hours before he or she wants or needs to nurse again so it’s a good time to start the day. (Remember though that every baby’s needs are different so use these as suggestions)

When thinking of a morning routine that you’d like to have as a breastfeeding mom, think of your morning in chunks. Ask yourself, “what do I want to get done before the next feeding”? Instead of trying to plan a whole day or even 4-5 hours, start with creating your 2-3 hours morning routine around nursing sessions.

After you are up and change their diaper and clothes, make sure to take time to take care of you! I don’t mean you have to put on a full face of makeup, curl your hair or wear a dress but get out of your pajamas – even if it’s into your ‘daytime yoga pants’ — oh come on, you know you own them too!

In the beginning it can be self care to just put in contacts, brush your teeth and change your clothes. I find that I am immediately in a better mood if I feel less sloppy and remember that I’m ‘more than mom’.

While you get ready, don’t feel bad about using a crib, pack and play or swing. Between those, bouncers and play mats, we had one in almost every room so that I could put the baby down! If your baby isn’t ready to be put down, give baby wearing a try! It’s super magical to be hands free and have your baby snuggled in close!

Breastfeeding Meal Plans

Now that you’re ready to head out of the bedroom, it’s time to eat! In order to keep your milk supply up, you need to make sure you’re taking in the right amount of calories. And I get it – you’re starving when you’re breastfeeding but make sure you are putting the right types of food in your body too.

Ive been able to lose 50 pounds after having both my kids AND nurse them for 19 months each so it is possible to lose baby weight, keep your milk supply up, and not starve!

If you want to check out any of the meal plans or programs that I did from Beachbody (including 21 day fix, 80 day obsession, 2B Mindset and more) you can check out the links below! I give you a sample meal plan and tips for how to keep your supply up!

One of the biggest tips I can give you thought is you have to drink a LOT of water and you have to eat! Once you head downstairs, go right to the fridge and chug 8 ounces of water! If you need to keep a timer on your phone to go off and remind you to drink water, go for it! Breastfeeding was my habit trigger so, whenever I fed the kids, I chugged water and it helped a ton!

Since you’re probably going to be holding baby a lot, I recommend meal prepping when you can ahead of time. It would work to do this on the weekend when your spouse might be home so that you can get 1 hour to get this done. You can make things like make ahead omelets, overnight oatmeal, or smoothies! This way, when it’s time to eat you can do it fast and easily!

Playtime with Your Infant

Now that you’re up and moving, you probably have another 90 minutes before your baby might want to nurse again. We typically followed the eat-play-sleep routine with all of my kids. This is when after they ate, we would play for a bit and then they’d nap. I liked to do this so that it didn’t create any nursing associations with them and I did my best to make sure that they didn’t fall asleep nursing or need it as a crutch to fall asleep.

Since you’ve both ate, it’s time to play! This is a great time for them to do tummy time, you to read books to them, or play with some noisy toys on a mat. With my first, I literally was glued to her for 6 months. I didn’t give myself permission to do anything when she was awake. I felt like I had to be on top of her or I was a bad mom.

Let me give you some permission right now — you can do other things. Yes, you need to watch, play, read and interact with your baby but you don’t have to freeze life because they are awake. Let them play on a playmat while you grab laundry to get started. Allow them to enjoy time in a swing so you can load the dishes. Pick 1-2 household tasks that you’d like to get done in the morning and do them and get them out of the way. These should take 15-30 minutes which still leaves you at least a full hour before another nursing session to interact and love on your little!

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Finding Time to Workout as a Breastfeeding Mom

I suggest you use this last hour as a good time to interact with your baby! I like to take the baby for walks or maybe stream some yoga to do together. My baby loved getting kisses as I did push ups or getting pushed in the stroller. Remember to ease your body into exercise post baby but still move! I worked out during both my pregnancies until the morning I delivered and I still had to go slowly back into it! Walking and yoga are great starts! Use your morning time to do some sun salutations and kiss the baby on the way down!

When you go for your walk, use this time for self care! Listen to an audio book (get a free audible trial here), use the YouVersion App to read your bible aloud while you walk, or get your mind right with some podcasts!

If you do get sweaty, make sure to take a minute to wipe yourself down! My poor baby has definitely had to nurse after a workout and I’m sure she didn’t love it! You most likely won’t have time to sneak in a shower if you need but baby wipes rock!

By this time, your breastfed baby is ready to probably sleep again (and remember, in the beginning ‘naps’ for infants can be anywhere from 15-60 minutes!) so ease your baby down, see if they’ll fall asleep on your walk, or rock them in the chair.

If you choose to feed them first, do your best to put them down to sleep in their bassinet or AAP approved swing! And if they won’t let you put them down (depending on their age and sleep habits), put them in the baby carrier or hold them! This is another great time to text and connect with a friend, chat with other breastfeeding moms in Facebook groups or get back to that self development on your phone!

And if they do let you put them down… do something for you to close out your morning routine! Take a shower, watch a show, change over the laundry or grab a nap! Pat yourself on the back, you made it through the morning and did a great job!

What sorts of things do you do in your morning routine or while breastfeeding? Post it in the comments!

Evening Routine for Stay at Home Moms

Stay at home moms need routines to help their homes run smoothly and an evening routine is one of the most important ones. A lot of time we start with trying to fix and improve our morning routine but, I truly believe that your evening routine is even more vital.

A good evening routine will set up your day for success. It allows you to wake up less stressed and frazzled and actually achieve more in your morning routine.

And I hear you… as a stay at home mom once my kids are in bed the last thing I want to do is another routine, wash another dish, or make a decision. As soon as my kids are tucked in bed I truthfully plop (seriously, imagine a belly flop) onto my bed and scroll my Instagram for 15 minutes while I ask my husband for quiet.

But as soon as my 15 minute scroll timer goes off, I get myself up and start my evening routine, no matter how tired or worn out I am, because I know it’s value and importance.

How to End Your Day As a Stay at Home Mom

I recommend having a structure that splits your evening routine into three parts – closing out today, prepping for tomorrow, and taking time for you. As a stay at home mom, our job starts the second the kids are awake (and if their like my early birds that is 5:30am) and goes way past their bedtime. Having a plan, checklist, or routine for the evening is going to be super helpful when you have decision fatigue and just want to put most of your tasks on auto pilot.

Closing out the day is the toughest part of the evening routine as a stay at home mom because we just get burnt by the end of the day. We’ve cleaned up the same mess over and over, attempted to fold laundry all day, and just don’t want to do it.

But it’s super key and needs to be done first to help you get your evening routine mojo flowing!

I’ve shared a checklist below of suggested things you could do to close out the day and I left some blanks for you to come up with the things that you know need to get done. All of our homes are different but, when you’re trying to come up with tasks to close out the day, think of 1-4 looming tasks you know you didn’t compete or must get done. This is not the time to complete your entire to do list, berate yourself for ‘not doing enough’, or feel like a failure – this is the time when you get done what you know will decrease your stress and set you up for success tomorrow.

And a quick note: you do not have to complete this entire checklist by yourself. Many nights, these tasks happen before the kids go to bed and we do them as a family. I like to put them on my checklist because for the crazy busy nights, or the ones where we are at church or sports, or I just want to direct people to how to help, it is helpful to have a reference.

Remember, there is power in a checklist. I like to use this checklist as a data point for myself each week. If you’ve never done an evening routine, you can try it out for week one and get a percentage of the tasks that you’ve completed. Next week, you can aim to get 1-2 more tasks done than last week. This helps change the ‘all or nothing’ mentality into a mentality of growth and grace!

Prepping for Tomorrow as a Stay at Home Mom

Once the close out tasks are done and I feel less overwhelmed by the craziness of that day, I am ready to plan for tomorrow.

As a stay at home mom, you want to create an evening routine that makes sense for your day and helps you run your home well. I am a firm believer in having routines even though we’re at home and feel strongly that kids thrive off them as well.

Prepping for tomorrow really allows you to start your day with ease because you have things done and know what to expect. If you’ve ever had a frazzled morning trying to get everyone off and ready for school and forgot to pack lunches or check book bags than you know what I mean!

On the checklist that you can download for your evening routine at the bottom of this post, you also will see a blank space for adding in preparing tasks. I’ve added in some of the things I do but again, think about the season of your family! Your tasks may look different if your kids go to traditional school or you homeschool. It may look different if you have older kids vs younger kids. So take the template I’ve given and customize it for your needs!

My prepping for tomorrow tasks include;

Making lunches (including mine and the kids as much as I can, even though we’re home! This may look like pre making salads or making a batch of hard boiled eggs)

Packing book bags, diaper bags, sport bags or anything else needs (and again, the kids can be a part of this as well!)

Laying out clothes – I lay out my workout clothes so that I have no excuses in the morning and the kids pick their clothes out during our bedtime routine to make it simple.

Loading the coffee pot with the timer

Reviewing our schedule for the day and pre planning my time blocked tasks. Read more about time blocking here!

Setting out an independent morning activities for the kids (I put one on their small table that they always gravitate to so I can get breakfast and the morning going without them under my feet and them asking for TV right away)

I think it’s key to have a good idea of your schedule and pre planning tasks for your family the night before. I like to use time blocking for most things so it helps if I know in advance which errands I want to run, which work tasks I’m planning to focus on or any phone calls that I have to make before places close.

Taking Time for You as a Stay at Home Mom

After you’ve done the majority of your home tasks for the night, it’s time for the best part of the evening routine — time for you! The closing out and prepping stages of an evening routine might take you anywhere from 30-45 minutes depending on how much you get done before the kids go to bed (again some of mine gets done with their help before bed) or how crazy the day is.

I like to close out my day with time for me and, as a stay at home mom, it’s very important you do the same. When we’re just go-go-go for everyone else and don’t pause for us, stay at home mom depression and burnout can occur. I find as a stay at home mom I have to be super intentional about time for myself, self care and personal growth.

Once my checklist is complete, I take 15-60 minutes in my own learning and growth. And I know that seems like a lot of time if it’s not a habit you already have but trust me, 15 minutes can start to become a habit that you crave and take more of!

So what are some things you can do during this time? (and again, start with just 15 minutes and over time increase it by 5 minutes. You’ll find that you love that time, the mom guilt will melt away, and your mindset will be on fire!)

By ending your day for you, you’ll go to bed with less anxiety, more peace and feeling jazzed about the next day. What I don’t recommend you do though is just plop on the couch and have a Netflix binge or get sucked into a social media scroll. These things wreak havoc on your mindset, make you compare your lives to others and don’t fill you up.

Now, there is nothing wrong with social media or TV but I just don’t think it’s the best way to close your day. The lights from the TV and phone can keep you up, your brain gets super stimulated, and the last things in your brain tend to be where your dreams go. Give yourself the gift of positive thoughts!